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Official Turkmen website Altyn Asyr (The Golden Age) recently added a new feature that allows readers to post comments to articles. The RFE/RL article assesses the new feature to be a dramatic shift in a country where the government strictly controls all media and public dissent is not allowed. The website, which was launched about two years ago in Russian, which now, features English and Turkmen, publishes news articles about the national government and local news. RFE/RL notes that the move to allow comments to be posted coincides with a trip to Turkmenistan by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Elsa Vidal, the head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Eurasia Desk, told RFE/RL that RSF welcomed the development, expressed a 'great surprise' and interpreted it as a 'good sign' in regards the reforms for freedom of expression. 'But nevertheless, it is too early to say whether this sign will lead to a bigger liberalization of information in Turkmenistan. We very deeply hope that it will and that President Berdymukhammedov will commence his reform of the country.'- noted Vidal. Vidal says the Internet cafes in Ashgabat are not as free as they are in most other countries. She says you must register your identity and that there are filters on the web browsers that prevent many websites from being accessed by the user. 'These are, nevertheless, big changes [with the Internet] compared with [President Saparmurat] Niyazov's era,' she says. Source: RFE/RL, Oct 11, 2007 Link to article: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/10/a0e5fac2-c408-4053-a596-0e5b01e14840.html